


do i make u miserable

by inattention



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Friends, Growing Up, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Unconventional Relationship, Unreliable Narrator, akashi pov is a little bit unhinged tbh, theyre both disgustingly rich
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29411475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inattention/pseuds/inattention
Summary: Mayuzumi Chihiro looks at him from across the table, baleful eyes interested for the moment. Only for the moment. Not much has held his attention for long.Akashi would strive to be different. (He is, he is.)
Relationships: Akashi Seijuurou/Mayuzumi Chihiro
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	do i make u miserable

~~**it's always ever been you.** ~~

Mayuzumi Chihiro looks at him from across the table, baleful eyes interested for the moment. Only for the moment. Not much has held his attention for long.

Akashi would strive to be different. (He is, he is.)

  
  


> **i.**

They meet when they are children.

It is inevitable. Japan is small in the grand scheme of things, and Masaomi has always admired Aiko - the best someone like his father could, anyway - because she was a knight through and through: honourable and righteous, the perfect picture of patriotism and grace.

She's so unlike Chihiro, who has to be coaxed into caring; who doesn't trifle and fuss in order to get into Akashi's good graces. It's strange, because as horrible as it sounds, Akashi has grown rather used to it by now - how people land at his tiny feet, though he's always been a little jaded in his impression of the people who did.

He doesn't remember much from that first meeting. He was very young, and he finds that he doesn't really recall much from his childhood - a side effect of his trauma, his therapist tells him now.

Chihiro does, though. He tells him once, and only once, laying beside him in bed with a lit cigarette between his fingers, that during the first visit, he was taken with the impression that he's never seen red that bright before. Never seen red that vibrant, so much so that it looked alive, red that felt like it could consume everything in its path if it desired it.

Never seen red so violent.

(He wonders, sometimes. If Chihiro still thinks that. He thinks he'd rather not know.)

> **ii.**

He supposes they've done this whole thing backwards.

Akashi, at first, was really meant to marry into the family. It was supposed to be a good financial move, and it was, really, except Aiko didn't want any more children. Deals were made and hands were shaken and then it was finally decided that they would still be business partners even without the added treaty of a marriage contract.

That was how Akashi became an almost permanent fixture at the Mayuzumi residence, though at the time Akashi didn't really care for much and only really noticed how Chihiro stared at him from across the table from over their meals, chubby-cheeked and insolent.

It's become a hobby for them to scrutinize each other as their parents to talk about terms and trades and troths. The upper class is home to the free, certainly, because money could afford it, but it is not exempt from the tediousness of court; for children, they've endured the discussion quite well.

They were both well-behaved, anyway. Later, Akashi would tell him, "I'm going to have the world," by way of introduction, and Chihiro, a few years older but already intolerable and miserable, as Akashi would tease him a few years into the future for, replied with, "No, you won't."

Curious, Akashi had fired back with a, "Why not?"

"I'll make sure you don't," Chihiro said childishly. Back then, his poker face wasn't quite perfect yet, and his irritation showed through the carefully blank mirage. "You annoy me."

Akashi's only response had been to blink at him, temperamental, unsure of what would be appropriate to say. Father told him to make nice, after all.

In the end, he doesn't say anything and they sit beside each other, squirming little children who would rather be anywhere else.

(Now, Akashi laughs against the smoke passing through his lips. "Tell me," he says, a little desperately, hands on Chihiro's face, searching through the gray, "did you feel your mother's unfulfilled dreams just as well as I can my father's legacy?"

Chihiro doesn't answer him. He never really does when matters, but his hand is big and warm on the curve of Akashi's hip, right over his clothes, and it's barely anything but …

"You really do have to learn how to watch your mouth," Chihiro snickers, and then, he leans down to envelop his mouth with his.)

> **iii.**

"Suppose they'll want something else for themselves," says the Masaomi of a few years ago, wistful, "what then? My Seijuro is very independent…"

Aiko only smiles. It's one of the close-lipped ones that always speak of a strength beyond words. "Then we honour it," she says, as if it's that simple.

Masaomi shakes his head. "Duty forbids."

"If duty would prevent my son from all that he wants," Aiko replies, succinct and precise, "then all I have worked for in this life is worth dust. Don't you agree, Akashi-san?" She turns to Masaomi, deadly and dead-eyed and dangerous, the way Chihiro has grown up to be. "My Chihiro will get the sky and the stars if he so desires it. Nothing would stop me from retrieving it for him. Isn't it the same for you about Seijuro?"

> **iv.**

For the longest time, Mayuzumi Chihiro was nothing but a figure of white in his mind.

Of course that's a given. It would have been impossible to live without him otherwise.

Chihiro is a child of the night through and through. No one sees him from where he stands in his mother's shadow. From that alone, Akashi saw the need to observe him.

"We've known each other since we were children," Chihiro says during a family dinner where they both escape to take a breather in the gardens, "but this is the first time I'm walking with you. How quaint."

Akashi blinks, and a corner of his lips turns up in amusement. For some reason, he feels like he could be outwardly horrible with Chihiro, and it wouldn't really be making a difference. "Knowing each other is perhaps pushing it a little bit far."

"Maybe so. I don't care." Chihiro says, succeeding in making Akashi laugh. Not that he'd wanted him to. Akashi just finds Chihiro endlessly entertaining. "My mother says you're very talented."

"I thank her for her praise, but I haven't done anything that should merit it."

"You're humble," Chihiro observes after a short while. "I doubt any of it is sincere, though."

Akashi laughs again. How interesting! "That's cruel of you to say, Mayuzumi-san."

"Not as cruel as you away from polite company." Chihiro shrugs. His tux suits him, Akashi observes. He's such a handsome boy - wasted in the dark. "Be that as it may, there is much to acknowledge. I'm convinced that God Himself has prostrated himself before you."

Akashi wonders how Chihiro would react if he told him that he was god, plain and simple. Probably look at him with barely concealed disgust. Probably like he'd want to crush him under his foot.

He smiles wider.

> **v**.

  
  


High school is a trip.

Chihiro simultaneously despises him for putting him through this and cannot get enough of him. It's a horrible cycle. They have their first kiss when Chihiro graduates - ducked into an empty classroom like Akashi wasn't Mr Perfect and Chihiro a fucking shadow - and like everything else about them, it's impulsive and out of character and _good_.

Gasping through the teeth and tongue, Akashi asks, "Do I make you miserable?"

Chihiro pulls away. His eyes - always so dead - look vaguely like they might be screaming _yes, yes, of course you do,_ but he grabs him by the collar instead and pulls him closer.

"Do that again," he's dazed, and they kiss and kiss and kiss.

> **vi.**

  
  


Later, when they have time to think and talk about it, Akashi tells Chihiro he'd like to keep kissing him. Chihiro raises an eyebrow at how he words it like an imperial declaration.

"Was I your first kiss?" he asks, looking up from his light novel. He's lounging in a chair in the student council room, the very picture of nonchalance.

"Yes," Akashi replies, because there's no reason to lie. Chihiro only sighs as he bookmarks a page in his book and sets it down, deciding he wouldn't be able to focus on it anymore. "Figures," he scoffs. "Of course you'd be good at the whole kissing thing, too."

Dutifully, Akashi asks, "Was that your first time, as well? You were very good, too."

Chihiro shakes his head. A small, shallow action. "No," he says. Akashi blinks at this. _No_ , what a funny word. _No_. "I'm two years older than you. Of course I know what I'm doing."

"Oh," he says.

"Yeah, _oh_ , first year," he rolls his eyes. "Don't get possessive on me. It didn't mean anything."

"And this does?"

Caught, Chihiro looks back at him. His lips are pulled into a thin line. He doesn't answer, but then again, he doesn't need to.

> **vii.**

Making deals that decide the balance of the scales are common, especially from where Akashi Seijuro perches, and he knows Chihiro is of the same blood, so it's not an uncommon thing for them to meet halfway.

Everyone knows Masaomi's golden child and Aiko's shadow and steel have started getting along and it comes as a surprise to many. Akashi is the only person who concerns himself with the rumors, though. Chihiro doesn't care - instead, he seems to grow even more increasingly bothered by Akashi's summons by the day.

Today he's in a particularly bad mood and calls instead of complying with his wishes. Akashi receives it graciously but is only met with Chihiro grunting down the line with all the grace of an escaped circus elephant.

"What is it this time?" he demands.

Akashi smiles. A silly gesture really, when there's no one there to see it. "I simply wanted to spend time with you."

Chihiro is twenty then. Still a boy, really, even if he was two years older than Akashi. He certainly doesn't fit what his father told him to find in a partner: _find someone who shares your values and adores you wholly._ Chihiro spends half of his time disagreeing with him and the other half completely offended by whatever he does. He's just not the marriageable type.

"Useless," Chihiro snaps. "I have things to do, you know. I'm in university. You calling is a waste of time - you know this, don't you?"

It's not a question. Chihiro never questions his omniscience the same way Akashi never questions how easily Chihiro can put him in his place.

For him - courageous, young boy of fire and blood - it was a simple thing.

"Chihiro," he declares suddenly, with feeling. "Once our goals have been accomplished, I will come to ask for your hand."

It's an oath. A serious one. Chihiro only snickers. It's grating. A horrible sound. Akashi absolutely adores it. "Here you go again, being ridiculous," he mocks. "Don't ever call me with shit like this ever again."

The dial tone follows. Chihiro texts him three minutes later with two messages that read _go to sleep motherfucker_ and _ask me out on a date first dumbass._

> **viii**.

  
  


So they do. It's successful, he supposes. They don't murder each other and Chihiro pulls him down in the car and shoves his tongue down his throat, muttering something about this whole thing being so fucking ridiculous.

(Masaomi sighs when Akashi informs him about it. _Of course it's him,_ and it's bitter but doesn't sound like an outright refusal, and that's the best he can get out of his father, really.) 

> **ix**.

  
  
  


"If I should love," Akashi tells Chihiro once, and only once, as they stand on the balcony of his Tokyo apartment a year later, engulfed by starlight, "I'm pleased that it's you."

"Gods don't love," Chihiro says immediately, a smartass even during times like this, even when his lips curl in satisfaction. "They think they do, but that's never the case."

That's the problem, isn't it? He watches as his breath turns into fog in the cold. See, that's how it is. Chihiro never questions his divinity the same way Akashi never questions his heartlessness.

Chihiro sighs, taking his silence for what it is. Conversationally, he says, "Must be awful work. To be loved by a god. Coddled by one. Horrible, ghastly work. I shudder just thinking about it. They must be miserable."

Akashi cranes up his neck to look up at him then, giving him the cutesy little smile he gives people who he knows fancy him - the one that drives Chihiro up the wall with frustration. "Are _you_ miserable?"

"No," Chihiro replies, clipped, "strangely enough, I'm not."

"Is that enough?"

"For now," and that's that.

( _For now,_ Chihiro says, and Akashi is enough of a madman to buy a ring.)

> **x.**

  
  


The world's most casual proposal happens on an unreasonably sticky warm Tuesday evening under the vineyards of some random Italian winery.

Well - the fact that they flew to Italy to see some grapes is not casual at all, but Akashi has always been a special case. Kuroko only shrugs. The rest of the Miracles lean forward in anticipation, even Midorima who pretends not to, and Murasakibara who is really concerned by the state of Akachin's affairs.

The story goes like this - after a particularly normal dinner, in which they talked about the market's growing decline, Chihiro professed an interest in the business ( _a lie,_ Aomine spits, because who fucking cares about the wine market's growing decline) and Akashi, like a true gentleman, offered to show him the vineyards.

The long and short of the story is this: while Akashi was in the middle of a speech about grape fermentation (" _absolutely enthralling,_ I'm sure," Kise snickers once he hears, only to be bullied into silence by Midorima), Chihiro gets down on one knee and proposes.

"But … didn't you want to do it?" Murasakibara asks with a head tilt, looking like a lost puppy. He had chip crumbs on the sides of his mouth. "Wasn't that why you wanted to go to Italy in the first place?"

"See, that's the point." Akashi says, a thrill going through him as he remembers the ringbox in his own pocket that day as he waited for his own opportunity to arise. "He predicted that, and proposed first just so he could ruin my plans. Isn't it darling?"

They all look at each other. Midorima purses his lips.

"God help us all."

> **xi**.

  
  
  


The engagement's seemingly corporate nature is a deviation to who they are as people, so it's come mostly as a surprise. Like so many things about their match, it was baffling.

It's not because they were incompatible, or even because the general populous had negative feelings about the upcoming nuptial arrangements. It's simply because -

"It's so … unromantic!" Kise cries out.

The Generation of Miracles always had a fondness for theatrics. Kuroko once said, horribly wine-drunk, that it was likely that that made them unbearable lovers.

"Kise-kun," the currently sober Kuroko is saying now, gentle, "That's not the most important thing in the world."

Kise makes a sound of exasperation as he leans back on the sofa, crossing his arms. Even grown up now, he still executes the same face that used to get Nijimura to do anything he asked. "This is impossible," he insists. "I feel like I might faint from the stress alone!"

"This isn't gonna be _your_ wedding," Aomine barks. He doesn't want to be here at all - only came at Momoi's insistence - and beside him, the lady herself laughs, covering her smile with a dainty hand. "Well, it _is_ difficult to wrap your head around. Akashi-kun's never been one for impulsive decisions, after all."

Kuroko nods in agreement, "Akashi's always been one for pomp and ceremony, if nothing else, so this whole situation is difficult to wrap your head around indeed."

"I don't understand why you're both so surprised," says Akashi. "It was bound to happen."

"You know why!" Kise protests, looking very devastated. "It's not like you! Really, Akashicchi, you're spoiled for choice! If you're planning to settle, then I simply can't allow it."

He only sighs. "I'm perfectly happy, I really am," he tells them, and it's not a lie. "It couldn't have been anyone else."

To be honest, he understood why they were all concerned. Akashi and Chihiro were both people who preferred things on their own terms, after all, and surely with something like marriage, they'd find a way to contend with each other.

The opposite happening instead was unprecedented. It must be surprising, but Akashi thinks otherwise. He's really never stopped thinking the best of Chihiro.

(Kuroko maintains that it's because the high of being engaged is making him more amiable than usual. Akashi pretends not to hear it, because he has benevolence in troves.)

> **xii.**

  
  


Chihiro fetches him in his Ferrari after three hours and then he graces him with a long look. It's a rare one so Akashi makes sure to preen into it, even as Chihiro's reaching over to tuck a stray strand of red behind his ear to see his face better.

"You look absolutely exhausted," he says, and he even looks a little delighted, the bastard.

"Don't laugh at my expense."

"I'm not," Chihiro insists, reaching over and taking his hand in his. It's warm. "You do look exhausted."

"This is inappropriate," Akashi says instead, at Chihiro's hand holding his own.

"I'm literally only holding your hand."

"Difficult. You're too difficult." He doesn't let go. Refuses to. "Just drive."

Chihiro only hums and obeys.

  
  


> **xiii.**

  
  


Now, Chihiro pulls away from him. He tastes of smoke. It's the day before their wedding and Akashi is splayed on his lap like a particularly spoiled cat, eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks.

"Are you miserable?" Chihiro asks him.

Akashi shakes his head, almost laughs. Like he could ever be unhappy, seated on a throne meant for a king, loved by a man who he's loved since the beginning. "Far from it."

"I'm not asking you again. Answer me honestly."

"I know you won't. You don't like repeating yourself." Akashi says. "But rest assured, if I had my way, I would have been happy to marry you a thousand times over."

Chihiro pauses. His finger stills from where he was tracing circles into his hip. "Thank the gods you don't, then," he smiles, and it's diluted enough of its usual poison for Akashi to want to lick it off of him. "I'm fairly happy with only doing this once."

~~_it never could've been anyone else for me._ ~~


End file.
